The Normal Heart

Written by activist Larry Kramer in 1985, The Normal Heart is an intimate story of a tight-knit group of friends that doubles as a real-life political thriller. Called "a masterwork of love, rage,and pride," the play is a fearless look at the sexual politics of New York during the discovery ofthe AIDS epidemic.

Strawberry Theatre Workshop—an organization with a mission to start community conversations—is partnering with Lifelong AIDS Alliance to bring this vital history back to the stage for two constituencies: those who survived the epidemic, as well as a generation of sexually active adults too young to remember the early horror of AIDS. The performances will include talk-back sessions with caregivers and activists who will answer questions on the challenges still faced by a community living with HIV/AIDS, our best strategies for prevention, and the hope for a cure.

"The Normal Heart" in the Press

Misha Berson, Seattle Times (10-Jan-2014)"In April 1985, The Normal Heart landed Off Broadway with the force of a grenade. This fiercely polemical play, about a writer urgently trying to draw attention to the incipient AIDS epidemic, was lobbed by writer-activist Larry Kramer as the number of gay men and others diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was swiftly rising. So was the death toll from what seemed like an unstoppable plague, with no cure in sight."

Michael Strangeways, Seattle Gay Scene (17-Jan-2014)“Greg Lyle-Newton gives a beautifully passionate and fiery performance as Ned… he conveys all those contradictory but very realistic characteristics and grounds the character in a strong sense of believability and conviction that anchors all the other characters in the play. It’s a powerful and compelling performance and Mr Lyle-Newton has set a high bar for every other leading performance in Seattle for the rest of the year.”

Jay Irwin, Broadway World (19-Jan-2014)“[The Normal Heart] is a shout out to a bygone era and while we have come quite far since the days when people wouldn't even mention the words AIDS or gay except in whispered tones, the play, while spotlighting our progress, also points out that we are very much still in this fight. And director Sheila Daniels and her cast treat the show with complete respect and honesty and create a near seamless evening of powerful theater.”

Blair Peters, Drama in the Hood (19-Jan-2014)“[The Normal Heart] is a story that merits remembering, and merits being told by people who were there... It’s exhausting and draining. After the houselights came up, and we were filing out the door, I said to a young man behind me, ‘That was a lot to see, wasn’t it?’ He replied, ‘Yes, it was. Thank God.’”

Misha Berson, Seattle Times (21-Jan-2014)“Under the fleet, fine-tuned direction of Sheila Daniels, on a simply dressed stage flanked by audience on two sides, The Normal Heart revs up fast. It can still sound like a pamphlet, or a debate in the letters section of The New York Times. But the passionate, periodic preachiness connects to a central thesis also dear to Ibsen: the importance of taking action against a social ill, even in the face of public and institutional ignorance and apathy.”

Gemma Wilson, City Arts (21-Jan-2014)“It's hard for those of us a generation removed from this story to remember that there was a time when AIDS wasn't AIDS. It makes The Normal Heart take on the feeling of a horror movie—an entire population is being stalked by an unknown assailant, insidious, unknowable, unnamed. Those of us too young to bear witness to the horrors of these years should count ourselves lucky, but we should do more than that. If The Normal Heart reminds us of anything, it's to never, never stop shouting into the wind. Make them hear you.”

Christopher Frizzelle, The Stranger (22-Jan-2014)“Dr. Brookner is played by Amy Thone, a brilliant Seattle actor who's been praised to the skies in The Stranger before. I hate to heap more attention on Thone at the expense of the other actors, but so be it: She's un-look-away-from-able. Her unimpressed is very impressive. She's so convincing, it feels like an actual pissed-off doctor from 1981 has been airlifted into the production.”

Marci Sillman, KUOW 94.9FM (23-Jan-2014)“Public complacency fired up many gay men and public health activists, among them writer Larry Kramer. He helped form the organization Act Up, a radical group bent on getting help for people with the disease. But Kramer may be better known for his play. The Normal Heart opened in New York in 1985, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. The semi-autobiographical story about a New York writer's fight for AIDS research was the first play about the disease.”

Miryam Gordon, Seattle Gay News (25-Jan-2014) “The cast is terrific, from the yeoman effort of Greg Lyle-Newton to demonstrate both Ned Weeks' anger, neediness, and activism, to the ensemble support of other gay characters (Peter Crook, Stephen Black, and Andrew Russell), a heartbreaking relationship with Ned's straight brother (Rob Burgess), and an extra-special performance from Amy Thone as a doctor on the spot to accidentally become a foremost expert on the disease just by proximity. “